Diabetes Information

Urine-glucose testing
The easiest form of glucose monitoring is with urine testing strips. The strip can be held in the urine stream and read at the appropriate time by most normally-sighted elderly people. While this does give a general idea of what is happening, and is probably better than not testing at all, the kidney threshold for glucose excretion is often high in older people. This means that by the time glucose appears in the urine the blood glucose may be well above normal. If the kidney threshold is known, urine tests can still be helpful and are certainly simpler than blood tests.
The result should be recorded in a diabetic diary and you should know at what level to call for help. Discuss this with the doctor. A rough guide is to ask the doctor or nurse for help if the urine glucose is 2 per cent or more for three days, or over 1 per cent for a week. Seek help immediately if the elderly person feels ill. Persistently negative urine tests may indicate that the insulin or oral hypoglycemic pills could be reduced.
Blind people can check their own urine glucose using a meter which gives audible bleeps for each glucose level.
Blood-glucose testing
This is the best guide to what is happening but is a waste of time and effort unless it is done properly. With the current enthusiasm for blood-glucose monitoring, many elderly people are taught how to do this, and some spend many miserable hours trying to obtain results which are inaccurate and which they do not understand.
It is important that everyone who is blood-glucose monitoring checks their technique from time to time. If an elderly person cannot check their own blood glucose then someone else should do it for them — a relative, friend or nurse. It should be checked at least once a week and more often if unwell or anything unusual happens. Four measurement on one day each week would be even more helpful, but may be harder to organise. We should be aiming for normal blood glucose levels in everyone with diabetes regardless of age.

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